âThe sadness does wear on you,â Droog says. âYou see the raw emotion, the pain.â

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – In the haze of fear, anger and confusion that is part of the crime victim’s milieu, Anita Emrich Droog has been there to provide sense, structure, comfort and an occasional kick in the pants.

She has transformed the agency once referred to as “professional hand-holders” into the envy of courts statewide. Now, after 25 years, Droog is wrapping up her career in the Kent County Prosecutor’s Office Victim/Witness Unit.

“For somebody to be in that job for that long is amazing,” said Tamara Keenan, mother of Sparta resident Julia Dawson, who was murdered nine years ago last week by Timothy Dawson, her husband and father of her son.

It would take four years after the slaying before Timothy Dawson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2008.

“It was confusing and crazy and not understandable in the least,” said Keenan. “She helped us so much.”

Keenan said Droog went above and beyond the call of duty and eventually helped the Keenans in a custody battle between the convicted murderer and his family over Timothy and Julia Dawson's now 10-year-old son.

Tamara Keenan and her husband, Kevin, adopted the boy in August after the court terminated his father’s parental rights.

“I love her,” Keenan said of Droog, who she now considers a close friend. “She puts her heart and soul into it all. It’s her calling in life.”

In 1989, Droog was an Ottawa Hills High School graduate who studied criminal justice and then worked in security at Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum when her husband, Ronald, a Grand Rapids police officer, told her about an opening in the fledgling Victim/Witness Unit.

At the time, the office operated out of one cramped room in the old Hall of Justice on Monroe Avenue NW where victims and suspects rubbed shoulders in the hallways of the century-old building.

“It was small,” Droog said recently, sitting in her office overlooking downtown.

The unit arose from the push spearheaded by late State Sen. William VanRegenmorter’s Crime Victim’s Rights Act, calling for funding from Lansing to set up agencies in a number of areas including Kent County in 1985.

By 1994, Droog was in charge of the program, taking over from Susan Heartwell, wife of Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell.

During her time, the unit has grown to a staff of nine professionals who cover all Circuit and District courts countywide after moving to offices in the Kent County Courts Building on Ottawa Avenue NW in 2001.

“It was like moving into the Taj Mahal,” Droog said.

Staff members help victims and their families negotiate the often frustratingly slow and complex legal system from the time a crime occurs to the day an offender is convicted and beyond.

Droog and her staff can be seen sitting next to the victims comforting them during graphic presentations of evidence and keeping them informed though each step.

They also are responsible for herding sometime reluctant witnesses, making sure they show up on time and telling those uninterested in showing up for court that ignoring a subpoena can have dire consequences.

Hugging a weeping victim one minute, facing off against a menacing potential co-defendant the next.

“It’s a job a lot of people couldn’t do,” said Droog’s boss, Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth, a big time supporter of the unit. “You need a lot of empathy and a thick skin.”

He says the people there have to negotiate between traumatized victims, pushy lawyers, demanding judges and uncooperative witnesses.

And then there is sharing the burden and trauma of unspeakable crimes.

“The sadness does wear on you,” Droog said. “You see the raw emotion, the pain.”

But Droog says the rewards have been worth it and she leaves feeling she has made a true positive impact on the community. She praises the commitment of her all-woman staff, many of whom have been with the office as long as she has.

She says she will miss the social interactions and the deep and lasting friendships she has found as a result of her work.

But she says it is time.

“I’ve done what I set out to do and I’ve had a great career,” Droog said. “Now I just want some solace.”

She will find that peace, she believes, at her new home built near Traverse City. She moves there with the new man in her life, who she met after her husband’s death from cancer in 2007.

Her son graduated from Michigan State University and is gainfully employed in Texas.

She still plans to be involved to some extent in victims’ rights organizations, including the Crime Victim Foundation, which helps secure grants for victims who are financially devastated.

“Mostly, I just want to chill,” says Droog.

On Monday, Dec. 16, her retirement party will be held at the courts building and the job will be handed over to 40-year-old Jon Wilmot.